Guinan tea-picking opera was first performed in the Ming Dynasty. Its tunes were relatively simple and not many in number. There were three tunes, one was "Tea-picking in December", the second was "Nanchang Xiaoqu", and the third was " Lotus of all seasons."

Tea picking in December was originally about singing the activities of tea farmers in December of a year. After development, it has developed into a complete set of songs and dances such as land reclamation, tea ordering, tea picking and tea frying.

Nanchang ditties include a set of tunes about the fifth watch, such as making noises at the fifth watch, sighing at the fifth watch, looking at the moon at the fifth watch, and five pillars of incense.

Four Seasons Lotus refers to the four small scenes, including the arrival of spring, the large falling garden, the middle falling garden, the small falling garden, etc., with melodies and dances mainly describing flowers in the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Later, after the tea-picking was separated from the lion and dragon dances, the percussion music of the lion and dragon dances was still retained, and combined with the Guinan eight tones to form the percussion music of the tea-picking opera, such as Xiangsi gongs and drums, Kuai Percussion music cards such as punch, slow punch, and Xiao Chaowang are still widely used today. This is the first step in the reinvention of Guinan’s tea-picking opera.

The tea-picking opera is performed independently in the form of singing and dancing. It is usually sung by three people, one man and two women. The three call each other brother and sister. The man is called brother, and the women are called eldest sister and second sister. Most of them are performed by men. Actor plays. It was not until later that multiple people came on stage to sing.

The singing tunes of the tea-picking opera were relatively simple at first, and the general singing theme was "Tea-picking in December". The second order is to congratulate and pay homage. At the beginning of the performance, the actors should congratulate the actor and the audience on the good luck. Most of the congratulations are about good weather and auspicious words.

Then there is land reclamation. The actors perform songs and dances of using hoes to hoe the ground and sowing tea seeds. Their movements are healthy and powerful, and full of life.

The next step is to explore tea. Actors performed visits to the growth of tea trees, burned tea mountain paper, and prayed to the mountain gods to protect the land and protect the tea harvest, which is a local characteristic.

Then there is tea picking and tea frying. The tea-picking performance is a tea-picking dance performed by a man and two women, singing and dancing at the same time, with graceful and moving movements; the tea-frying performance represents the process of making tea, which is warm and tense, with a man and two women singing and doing it at the same time, vividly expressing the joy of harvesting.

Selling tea is the last step of the performance. After many processes, the tea was finally made successfully, so my sister sent my brother to sell tea, which was very interesting and joyful.

The entire song of picking tea in December reflects the working people’s enthusiasm for work and joy of harvest through the entire labor process of growing tea.

Later, after Mo Wu, an old artist from Xinyi, Guangdong, came to Yulin to perform tea picking, he added two additional plots of worshiping and tea picking before tea picking in December, which was unique.

The content of tea-picking opera is constantly enriched, which also promotes the further development of Qupai. The first is the tea tune, which is the original set of tea-picking tunes; the second is the tea set, which is based on "Nanchang Xiaoqu" and "Four Seasons Lotus" and absorbs folk tunes from various places.

Tea-picking artists directly insert some folk tunes into the tea-picking opera to sing, which can not only enliven the scene but also enrich the content of the performance. Often in the middle of the tea-picking performance, the performance is inserted when the audience sends "packets". The sequence is roughly: congratulations and worship; folk tunes; ordering tea; exploring tea; folk tunes; picking tea; folk tunes; frying tea; selling tea; supporting. Boat, Xiao Shi will send it.

The ancient tea-picking string is a further development on the basis of tea-picking episodes. It combines some folk stories with plots and sings them through tea-picking tunes. Most of them are comedies and farces, which makes singing tea-picking gradually become more popular. Transition from local drama.

From the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, tea-picking opera in southern Guangxi has basically completed the transition from local opera to stage drama. Later, the tea-picking troupe successively staged dramas such as "Butterfly Lovers", "Two Parents", and "Back on the Tea Mountain", announcing that the development of tea-picking opera has matured.

The tea-picking opera in southern Guangxi has a strong local flavor and is popular among the people. Tea-picking opera in southern Guangxi is a folk opera. It is native to the country and sung in the local language Hakka. It is easy to understand and popularize.

The Guinan tea-picking opera performance team is capable and flexible. The number of teams generally does not exceed 10 people. Small Taoist instruments and small programs are not restricted by the venue, so the performance is convenient.

Guinan tea-picking opera has a unique performance with singing and dancing. The four skills of singing, chanting and dancing focus on singing and dancing. Most of the chanting is in rhyme or parallel prose. The performance atmosphere is warm and the theater effect is good.

Guinan's tea-picking opera has a unique flavor, often using "Xu Du Ya" and "Xu Du Ya La", which is deeply cordial to the audience and is widely sung. Therefore, "Yu Du Ya" has become another "common name" for tea picking in southern Guangxi.

Guinan tea-picking opera brands are eclectic and have a large capacity.

The tea-picking interlude has a rich variety of tunes. In the long-term performance practice, folk artists have continuously absorbed the tunes and music of folk tunes, folk songs, and brother operas, and they are diversified.

The musical instruments used in Guinan tea-picking opera include percussion, instrumental music and Taoist instruments. Percussion music includes gongs, drums, cymbals, and wooden fish; instrumental music includes suona, erhu, flute, and bells; Taoist instruments include money whips, ribbons, flower fans, and handkerchiefs.

There are more than 10 traditional tea-picking opera scripts in southern Guangxi. For example, "Zhang San celebrates the New Year", "Shaving His Head and Borrowing His Wife", "A Boy Goes to the Beijing Examination", "Alan Sells Pigs", "A Fool Sells Cloth", "A Fool Says Birthdays", "Trouble with Mandarin Ducks", "A Good Wife" , "A Lady Looking for a Husband", "A Lobster Marries a Wife", "A Blind Man Trouble in a Shop", "A Flower", "Killing a Dog to Persuade a Husband", "A Father Sends His Daughter Away", "Looking for a Relative", "Punching a Boat", " Selling groceries", "Putting fields and cutting crops", "Heng Wen Chai meets Wu Tianzhuang", "Smoking Man Sweeping the Streets", "Four Precepts", etc.

These plays are all sung orally and do not have written scripts. Veteran artists from all over the country can constantly modify and process the performances according to the local conditions at the time. Therefore, the plots of plays with the same title are not exactly the same, and it is even harder to figure out when, where and who created them.

Except for the play "Killing Dogs and Convincing Husbands", which may come from traditional operas, the contents of these plays all come from folk stories and legends. It is characterized by its focus on family ethics stories, and the biggest character is just a county magistrate.

Guinan tea-picking opera is mainly based on comedy and farce. The plot is strong, easy to understand, lively and lively. It has a strong flavor of life and local color. The script structure is relatively complete, so it is loved by the masses. .

In addition to "Killing Dogs to Convince Husbands", "A Flower", "Trouble with Mandarin Ducks", and "Idiots Selling Cloth", there are also some programs with plots and characters, such as "Father Gives Daughter a Gift", Although the plots of "pushing boats", "selling groceries", "planting fields and cutting crops" are relatively simple, the language is vivid, the emotions are realistic and fascinating.

The music and singing tunes of traditional tea-picking opera are relatively simple. Although tea-picking tunes in southern Guangxi have more than 200 tunes, they are not well used. Some plays only sing "Siping Lian" from beginning to end, with little change. Not much development. Although it has strong generality and large capacity, and can be used for multiple purposes in one song, it lacks dramatic musical personality.

After the founding of New China, under the leadership of the Party, professional and amateur literary and art workers from all over the country implemented the Party's "Double Hundred Policy", excavated and sorted out tea-picking operas, and on this basis, carried out bold experiments Innovative work, in line with the central tasks of each period, choreographed and performed a number of new tea-picking dramas that were well received by the masses, such as "The First Day of Farm Tool Reform", "Borrowing Clothes", and "Green Pearl", and organized and adapted some traditional plays, such as "The Rebellion" "Mandarin Duck", "A Flower", "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", etc., have accumulated extremely valuable experience in the reform of performance programs and singing styles.

The main works of Guinan tea-picking opera were choreographed, created and performed in the 1920s, including "Cup Cup Dance", "Cut the Red Ribbon", "Borrowing Clothes", "Green Pearl Girl", etc.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he created many works, such as "Liu Sanjie", "Feng Jing and Ma Liang", "Brother Robbery", "Seal Seal", "Three Mile Bay", "Seize the Day" ", "Fengkou Ferry", "Blocking the Road", "Taking Account", "Bitter and Sweet Burden", "Butterfly Lovers", "Strange Marriage", "Three Appointments in the Pavilion in the Heart of the Lake", "Two Parents' Home", "Revisiting the Tea Mountain" , "The Joy of Herding Cows", "The Wrong Marriage", "The Bridge", "Sweet Man and Hot Sister", "Peach Blossom Sister", "Demolition Shop", "Moving to a New Home", etc.

Guinan tea-picking opera works created in recent years include "By the Pond of Clear Water", "Trouble with the Old Village Official's Stubborn Wife", "The Door God Goes to the Countryside", "Iron Rooster Plucking", "Boss Niu Worships His Wife", " The new director chases the old taxes" and a group of tea-picking songs and dances.

The repertoire of tea-picking opera in southern Guangxi is unique in its rich content, performance style, basic characteristics, and inheritance history among other local dramas in China. Excavation, rescue, protection and inheritance of tea-picking opera in southern Guangxi will play a certain role in enriching and improving the history of Chinese opera and even the history of world opera.